THE DIGIBLE DUDE

Today’s episode is all about insourcing versus outsourcing. This is a question that many folks have at some point in their marketing process. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, David and Reid discuss in-depth how to choose the most appropriate strategy for different scenarios and some tips and tricks for getting a better return on investment by using a blend of insourcing and outsourcing.

The first area we focus on today is branding. Reid starts the discussion by sharing his take on three critical things you should ask yourself before deciding on outsourcing or insourcing. David shares some valuable points on why you should run the numbers and find out your ROI before you make the decision. They also discuss the cultural benefits of insourcing and how the ownership of data and intellectual property, and having more control over the people could be appealing to a startup.

While digital marketing gets most of the attention, offline marketing still plays a significant role in the apartment marketing arena. At some point, you might decide to make use of signage, buy a bus stop advertisement, or perhaps host an event. David & Reid dedicate the next section to talking about how outsourcing can be beneficial in some of these scenarios and how to make the best of offline marketing with a blend of insourcing and outsourcing.

Getting into further depths of digital marketing, David & Reid talk about choosing the best approach for different products, platforms, and channels, including social media, email marketing, geofencing. They discuss in-depth about what you should consider when you’re looking for an SEO vendor, how to quantify the results of their SEO efforts, and what you should keep in mind if you decide to insource your SEO. Wrapping up the episode, David & Reid share some tips and tricks for making the best of your marketing efforts.

[02:16] Branding –  Pros & cons of insourcing vs. outsourcing for branding, working with creative agencies, and the importance of running your numbers.

[11:19] Cultural Benefit of Insourcing – How insourcing can be appealing to startups because of greater control and ownership of data.

[12:55] Offline Marketing – Things to consider in offline marketing, what to outsource, and what to insource.

[17:22] Outsourcing Events – What you should consider before outsourcing your event planning.

[20:47] Digital Marketing – Management cost of digital marketing campaigns and why it’s more logical to outsource digital advertisement campaigns.

[29:23] Transitions Between Insourcing & Outsourcing –  Reid’s observations on how transitioning between insourcing and outsourcing can be beneficial in different stages of the business based on the number of properties.

[32:48] Data Warehousing – What you should consider when choosing methods of data warehousing and reporting.

[35:44] Products & Platforms – How to decide the best approach for different digital marketing products and platforms.

[40:34]| SEO  -  Working with SEO vendors, how to quantifying SEO results, and what to consider when insourcing SEO.

[50:08] Craigslist – How to make the best of Craigslist.

[1:01:00] Risks Associated With Digital Talent – Dealing with employees’ mindsets, employee retention, and considerations for maximizing ROI on an employee.

On March 23rd, the Digible team held a webinar covering how COVID-19 has impacted the apartment marketing. The team committed to updating their slides each week until the crisis has subsided.  This is the audio of the update recorded on 3/31/20. The data does show some bright spots - so tune in to get the gist of things.

Remote from the airport - David and Nicole give their final thoughts on the UpLift Conference hosted by BetterUp.  The conference focuses on EX (Employee Experience) and how to build a team that thrives in a "White Water World of Work".

BetterUp is a technology platform that Digible utilizes to provide Professional / Career coaching to the leadership team.  Their tech evaluates the "whole person" for strengths and weaknesses.  Then BetterUp's algorithm match-makes the individual to their ideal professional coach.  This service has been a terrific tool for the team at Digible, and the UpLift conference ties together the research, methodology, and reasoning that BetterUp has developed for their platform.

Listen in if you have an interest in hearing the team's key takeaways from UpLift 2020!

For Digible's first remote podcast, David and Nicole head out to Berkeley, CA for the UpLift Conference hosted by BetterUp.  The conference focuses on EX (Employee Experience) and how to build a team that thrives in a "White Water World of Work".  

BetterUp is a technology platform that Digible utilizes to provide Professional / Career coaching to the leadership team.  Their tech evaluates the "whole person" for strengths and weaknesses.  Then BetterUp's algorithm match-makes the individual to their ideal professional coach.  This service has been a terrific tool for the team at Digible, and the UpLift conference ties together the research, methodology, and reasoning that BetterUp has developed for their platform.

Listen in if you have an interest in hearing the team's key takeaways from UpLift 2020!

It's Friday, March 13th, and things are escalating quickly regarding the Corona Virus.  The Property Management industry is working to make sure the appropriate steps are taken.  David and Reid jump on the mic to discuss what steps apartment marketers should be taking - creative updates, targeting changes, and what should be done with marketing budgets.  Join us while we work through the implications.

By far the most requested episode (only requested episode?) to date!  David and Reid get together to provide their commentary on the possible CoStar acquisition of RentPath.  They cover what this might mean for the industry.  Is this actually a good thing?  Also, they take a stab at who all might benefit from this acqusition.  Fun fact, the Digible Dudes actually took 5 minutes to prep before the episode. Hey-o!

Eddie Fitzgerald joins the podcast to talk through his most recent case study on if the juice is worth the squeeze to post .GIF files vs Still images on a property's organic social media.  Tune in if you are interested in this case study OR if you have an interest in hearing David talk about how he was click-baited into an article about Diet Coke....

We at Digible are VERY excited to have Jennifer Labac join us as our new Director of Organic Media and Marketing.  Jennifer has a storied background - from building websites for Microsoft in the early 2000's to most recently, acting as the Director of Digital Communications Strategy for Children's Hospital Colorado.  In this episode, we grill Jennifer about her career to-date, her thoughts on micro-sites, her philosophy on content, and even the similarities between marketing health care and apartments.

The Paid Media team at Digible has recently had a huge breakthrough: The ability to run Dynamic Ad Creative on Facebook.  But what the heck does that mean?  

Now, the team is able to to update pricing and availability across facebook ads and campaigns in real time.  Yep, the ad creative itself can be changed. BUT Wait! There's More! Dynamic Ad Creative can also automatically throttle campaigns on or off based on unit availability.  The Digible team is still running tests, but we were too excited to keep this to ourselves.

Apartments.com announced that they are planning to spend $250M in advertising between digital in TV in 2020.  That includes an outstanding $100M on Paid Search advertising.  David and Reid hit the mics to talk through their thoughts and what this means for apartment marketers.